Jason Gaisie, popularly known as Pappy Kojo, a Ghanaian hip hop and hiplife recording artist, has claimed on the Showbiz 360 programme on TV3, that he is a homosexual.
Asked by host of the programe Giovani Caleb on Friday February 19 whether or not he was joking with the comment, he insisted with all seriousness that he is gay.
“I am a homosexual man,” he said when told about rumours indicating that he is currently dating a popular female musician. He said in reaction to a question by Giovani about his alleged relationship with Yvonne Nelson.
“Is that a joke?” Giovani asked him but he answered “No, it is not. I am gay bro. I am into men”
“What is your kind of man? He was asked again.
In answer, he said “Men like John Dumelo.”
When his attention was drawn to the fact that laws of the land do no permit such act, he retorted ”You can’t change it.”
Meanwhile Giovani believed he was joking with these comments which come at a time issues about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexuals, Transgender and Queer Individuals (LGBTQI) have dominated discussions on the airwaves after Minister-designate for Gender, Children and Social Protection, Sarah Adwoa Sarfo has expressed disapproval over the legalisation of homosexuality in the country.
“On the issue of its criminality, it is non-negotiable on the issue of cultural acceptance and norms too. These practices are also frowned upon,” she stated emphatically.
Director of LGBTQI+ Rights in Ghana, Alex Kofi Donkor, has asked Ghanaians to look at issues relating to LGBTQI, as human right issues.
He told TV3’s Miriam Osei Agyemang on the Mid day news on Friday February 19 that persons who are identified as LGBTQI are verbally and physically attacked in the country.
This, he said, must stop because they have fundamental human rights that must be respected and protected by the society.
Explaining the reasons behind the setup of an LGBTQI office in Ghana, he said “We created an office space where we talk about issues which affect us as community and ways in which we can resolve the issues.
“Let me quickly say in this country a lot of times we do experience a lot of violence and abuse that are perpetuated towards people who are identified as LGBTQI or people who are perceived as LGBTQI persons. When these violence are perpetuated against such people it goes unattended to, people do that with impunity.”
Dr. Vladimir Antwi Danso, Dean of Academic Affairs at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College, has urged Ghanaians, especially those in authority to be emphatic in the resistance of the LGBTQI phenomenon in the country.
He expressed his apprehension on the heels of the LGBTQI establishing an office in the country in an interview with Alfred Ocansey on News 360 on TV3, Thursday February 18.
Dr. Danso emphasized the position that “any international organization can support any other entity in any other country but that does not confer diplomatic immunity to persons who are going to use this facility, so if any Ghanaian is there doing anything, only Ghanaian laws apply to such personality. If any foreigner is patronizing the place his immunity inures from the diplomatic immunity according to the international conventions we know in Vienna. They can’t claim immunity just because the facility belongs to gays, lesbians, and that kind of thing”.
He shares the view that such avenues are subtle ways of influencing the cultural norms and security of a sovereign society like Ghana with a potential international consequence for the country.
“Ghana has not officially accepted LGBTQ and that kind of thing as an official position that we recognize it as a Human Rights thing, and therefore going further to have this thing established has repercussions not necessarily from government to government level repercussion but the general security implications, when I say security I’m talking about the broad sense security, I mean what is this?” he fumed.
“That my 8-year old daughter is now going to learn touching femaleness, maleness? Come on she knows that by her features she is female, period! Nobody should teach her how to feel female or feel male and when that didn’t succeed when the syllabus was withdrawn, now they are coming in subtle ways. They’ve got a center where people can go and feel free and socialize, isn’t it? Then it goes down to young minds, innocent minds who begin to take it up, then they get a constituency, once they have a constituency they become a force to reckon with and then Ghana has got there, Mr. President you said we haven’t got there yet, now we are there, we’ve got to resist this with all our might, we’ve got to resist this” he charged.
The international relations expert admonished all Ghanaians, especially those in authority to speak against the practice.
